Spring 2025 Courses
*Indicates course provides BU Hub units
*CAS WS 200 - Thinking Queerly
Explores historical and contemporary debates regarding LGBTQ identity, community, and politics through the relevant interdisciplinary (and often, competing) theories and research. Students gain skills in digital/multimedia expression through the development of a collaborative LGBTQ online magazine. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
*CAS WS 213 - Resistance, Protest, and Empowerment: Global Women's Movements
Explores how global expressions of sexism shape all of our lives, experiences, and life chances, with particular attention to how race, class, and sexuality intersect with gender to shape social inequalities. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
*CAS WS 263 - The Behavioral Biology of Women (also offered as CAS AN 263)
An exploration of female behavioral biology focusing on evolutionary, physiological, and biosocial aspects of women’s lives from puberty through pregnancy, birth, lactation, menopause, and aging. Examples are drawn from traditional and industrialized societies, and data from nonhuman primates are considered. Also offered as CAS AN 263. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 305 - Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Topic for Spring 2025: Trans Studies
This course focuses on the complex and still evolving field of trans studies through a diverse range of texts and media—both foundational and new. We will chart how the field of trans studies has grown exponentially alongside the increasing precarity and hypervisibility of trans bodies in public life. Drawing on legacies of activism and interdisciplinary scholarship, this course will explore the contested meanings of “trans” or “transgender” alongside related terms of gender variance. Our primary geographic focus will be North America, but we will situate discussions within broader global conversations and transnational political movements. This course will familiarize students with related issues such as trans healthcare, cissexism, bathroom legislation, trans media, book bans, and more – paying particular attention to frameworks of disability, decoloniality, and trans of color critique. Throughout the semester, we will question how knowledge is created, taken up, and disseminated, examining identities as both critical orientations as well as lived experiences.
Cariani_TransStudies_Spring2025
CAS WS 325 - Bombs and Bombshells: Gender, Armed Conflict, and Political Violence (also offered as CAS PO 346)
Delve into the world of Black Widows and Demon Lovers. Using empirical research, case studies, and drama, this course separates fact from fiction to examine gender and its intersections between recruitment, motivations, and conditions under which women behave violently. Also offered as PO 346.
*CAS WS 326 - Arts of Gender (also offered as CAS EN 326)
Prereq: at least one prior literature course, or CAS WS 101, or junior or senior standing. Examines representations of gender and sexuality in diverse art forms, including drama, dance, film, and literature, and how art reflects historical constructions of gender. Also offered as EN 326. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community.
*CAS WS 327 - Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation? (also offered as CAS LR 327 and CAS XL 327)
This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Also offered as LR 327 and XL 327. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 333 - Queering Health (also offered as SAR HS 333)
This course is about the unique physical and mental health needs, health disparities, and resiliency within the LGBTQ+ community. Students will learn about the psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, intersectionality in LGBTQ+ communities, gender identity and sexual orientation development models, queer families and relationships, minority stress, hetero/cis-sexism, and other relevant topics. Students will also learn about LGBTQ+ affirming therapies, healthcare, public policy, and legislation. This course will take a constructively critical lens to medicalized/pathologizing constructions of sexual and gender diversity and examine topics within historical and modern social context. This course will explore strategies for advocacy, improving the healthcare experience of LGBTQ+ people, and addressing barriers to accessing healthcare from local, national, and global perspectives. Also offered as SAR HS 333. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II.
*CAS WS 347 - Feminist Inquiry
Prereq: sophomore, junior, or senior standing. A survey of feminist theories and development of strands of feminist inquiry in the academy, movements, and politics. Considers the commonalities and contrast in gender relations across cultures and tensions between major feminist schools of thought. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation.
*CAS WS 420 - Queer Theory (also offered as CAS XL 420)
Surveys major texts and arguments in queer theory from Butler’s Gender Trouble to contemporary discussions of cisnormativity, homonationalism, affect, pinkwashing, crip theory, and queer-of-color critique. Explores different uses of queer theory in legal debates, literary analysis, and cultural criticism. Also offered as XL 420. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking.
*CAS WS 432 - S24: Gender, Sexuality, and Buddhism (also offered as CAS RN 432)
Examines gender and sexuality in various Buddhist cultures from a broad range of time periods such as ancient India, medieval China, and modern America. Topics include: family, the body, lust, abortion, and menstruation. Also offered as RN 432. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 442 - Philosophies and Feminism (also offered as CAS PH 442)
Undergraduate pre-requisites: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. – An advanced survey course of historical and contemporary philosophical approaches to feminism. Also offered as PH 442, PH 642, and WS 642. Topics include: methodology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, black feminist thought, decolonial feminism, global feminism, philosophy of gender, and queer and trans philosophy.
*CAS WS 452 - Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research (also offered as CAS SO 452)
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASSO241 OR CASWS200), First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) – Engages sociological debates about sexual identities, politics, and practices. Students consider how sexualities are expressed and regulated through various institutions and how they intersect with race, class, gender, citizenship, and other domains of inequality. Also offered as CAS SO 452 and SO 852. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive, Research and Information Literacy.
*CAS WS 453 - Topics in Religion and Sexuality (also offered as CAS RN 453)
Exploration of key topics and themes in the study of religion and sexuality, especially as they intersect with gender, race, and politics. Historical periods and religious contexts will vary according to instructor. Also offered as RN 453. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness, Creativity/Innovation.
*CAS WS 456 - Neurobiology of Sex and Aggression (also offered as CAS NE 456)
Examines neurobiological and genetic factors that influence sex and violence. Students review primary literature from the past century that highlights major scientific discoveries that have reconceptualized our understanding of the origins of sexual-determination, -attraction and – aggression. Also offered as NE 456. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry II.
*CAS WS 460 - Topics in LGBTQ History
Undergrad prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CAS WR100 or WR120). – Seminar examines topics in the history of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people and cultural or political movements. May be repeated for credit if topics vary. Also offered as WS 660.
*CAS WS 480 - Japanese Women Writers (also offered as CAS LJ 480)
Classic texts by Japanese women, including the “Tale of Genji” and “The Pillow Book,” and their modern legacy, read alongside important philosophical and theoretical texts in queer and feminist thought. Lectures and texts in English. Also offered as LJ 480. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking.
CAS WS 505 - Topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Topic for Spring 2025: Feminist Killjoys & Cynical Queers: Intersectional Theories of Affect
This class is designed to provide an upper-level examination of the “affective turn” in the humanities and social sciences, which has been marked by a shift in attention towards bodily sensation, structures of feeling, and modes of relationality. In this course, we will meet feminist killjoys, grapple with queer negativity, engage with Afro-pessimism, and encounter crip feelings. We will survey intersectional theories of affect and emotion with particular focus on cultural constructions of happiness, pessimism, joy, shame, anger, optimism, disgust, sadness, and compassion. Through our readings and discussions, we will work together to develop a critical framework to address vital questions such as how do hierarchies of sensation impact notions of ability, whose emotions are socially regulated, how do affects circulate in the media, and why do certain affects become associated with particular marginalized subject positions? We will also consider how affect and emotionality play key roles in strengthening social bonds, creating collective identities, and motivating action. Readings will include work by theorists like Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani, Ann Cvetovich, Saidiya Hartman, Brian Massumi, José Esteban Muñoz, Sianne Ngai, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Elizabeth Wilson.
Spring 2025 Courses Approved For Credit
The following non-WGS courses have been pre-approved for credit for the WGS minor. If you take one of these courses for credit, please email Director of Undergraduate Studies Sarah Miller during the first week of the Fall semester.
*Indicates course provides BU Hub units
Courses TBD